Learn English Vocabulary Daily #18.2 — British English Podcast

Hello, welcome to the English Like a Native Podcast.

My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 18, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day.

This is a series that hopefully is going to expand your active vocabulary

as we deep dive into five pieces every day of the week from Monday to Friday.

So, let's start today's list.

The first word is a noun and it is conservatory, conservatory.

We spell this C O N S E R V A T O R Y, conservatory.

A conservatory is a glass room that is usually attached to the side of

a house and it's used for relaxing.

And especially in good weather.

It's hard to relax in a conservatory in the winter because they

tend to be a little bit cold.

A conservatory is often where you'll put more houseplants

because it gets so much light.

Because there's more glass within a conservatory than anything else.

Here's an example sentence,

"We want to get a conservatory built next summer, can you recommend a good

supplier that's not too expensive?"

Sometimes people call a conservatory a sunroom.

We have a conservatory on the back of our house, and there was actually so

much glass in our conservatory that it became like a hot box, like an oven in the

summer because you just couldn't escape.

There was no shade in the sun, and so we actually did some

insulation on part of the ceiling.

So we put in insulating boards to block out the sun and to keep in the heat in the

winter, and it's made such a difference.

Have you got a conservatory or are you considering building one?

Next on our list is a verb and it is envisage, envisage.

We spell this E N V I S A G E.

To envisage something.

To envisage is to form a picture in your mind of how something or someone will look

or how it will work or how it will be.

So, if you're going to go on holiday to a country that you've never been to

before and you're going to do something that you've never done before, let's

say you're going to go to Portugal and you're going to try surfing and

you're going to camp while you do that.

So, you're going to sleep in a tent at night and ride the waves

in the day, but you've never done anything like that before.

You'll form a picture in your mind of what it will be like before you get there.

You will envisage it.

Here's an example sentence,

"I'd envisaged my blind date as a tall, dark, handsome man...

I couldn't have been more wrong.

He was short, had curly blonde hair and a beer belly!"

Have you ever been on a blind date?

Did you form a picture in your mind of what the person would be like?

Or have you set up a date using one of these dating apps when all you have

is a picture and a few lines of text that they've written about themselves?

And so, you envisage what they'd be like before you meet them and when you

actually come face to face with them you instantly realise that you were

so wrong, that they are completely different from what you had envisaged.

Moving on, we have an adjective, and it is liberal, liberal.

We spell this L I B E R A L.

Liberal.

To be liberal is to be open to new ideas and willing to accept the

opinions and suggestions of others when they're different from your own.

So, it's all about being open-minded, being liberal, or to

have a liberal approach to things.

As a teacher, I think I'm quite a liberal person.

I'm open to learning, I'm open to hearing and accepting other

people's opinions and methods.

Here's an example sentence,

"I have quite a liberal approach to parenting.

I have my rules, but I'm always open to suggestions if they

help me to be a better mum."

That example actually makes me think about my parenting.

I think I am a liberal parent myself.

I'm not as strict as my parents were, and my parents weren't as

strict as their parents were.

So, I think generation after generation, we've become a little bit more liberal.

At least it seems that way.

My grandmother was very strict.

Things like table etiquette and just general behaviour, you know,

the rules were firmly enforced and you had to sit up straight at

the table, no elbows on the table.

You had to eat with a knife and fork in a certain hand, and you

weren't allowed to sing at the table.

You weren't allowed to talk with your mouth full.

I mean, that's just general manners, but you weren't allowed to leave the

table until everyone had finished.

You weren't allowed to start eating until everyone was sitting down.

There were always these very strict rules.

You had to try everything on your plate and usually, you had to

finish everything on your plate.

And I remember them being very strict.

I'm much more liberal.

I decide when to enforce certain rules, but usually, I just let my

children be free, have a little bit more autonomy and control.

As much as I can

. Okay.

Let's move on to the next, which is a phrasal verb.

We love phrasal verbs and this is bandy around to bandy around.

Now this is separable, so we normally say bandy something around.

And we spell it bandy, B A N D Y.

Around, A R O U N D.

Bandy around.

If we bandy something around, then we talk casually and openly

about something without thinking.

So, it might be discussing ideas or our opinions without carefully

thinking about who we're talking to or what we're actually saying.

And this can be quite dangerous because if you just bandy things around if you

just talk without thinking, you could say something that you don't really mean

that could end up upsetting someone else or it could set off a chain reaction.

It could plant a seed, make someone start to think something about you

that's not accurate cause you're just loosely throwing these thoughts around,

you're bandying around your thoughts.

Here's an example sentence,

"Any idea who's up for promotion next month?

There's been a few names bandied around but no one has been confirmed yet."

Alright, next on the list is an adverb and it is insanely, insanely.

We spell this I N S A N E L Y.

Insanely.

Now, if you're describing something as insanely, then it's unreasonably

or extremely, to an extreme degree.

So, if someone is insanely fast, then they are extremely fast.

You know, I could say,

"A Volvo is fast, but a Ferrari is insanely fast."

I could say,

"My ever hungry cat is fat, but your cat is insanely fat.

What are you feeding it?

It needs to go on a diet.

Make it do some exercise."

So, it's about the extreme.

Here's an example sentence,

"Private school fees in Spain are insanely expensive, I think we'll have

to send the kids to a public school."

Can you think of anything that you would describe as insanely expensive?

Living in London is insanely expensive.

So much so that I think I'm going to have to move.

Move to somewhere where the cost of living is a little bit more affordable.

Alright, so that's our five for today.

Let's do a quick recap.

We started with the noun conservatory, conservatory.

This is a glass room that's usually attached to the side of a house

and you use it for relaxing in.

Then we have the verb envisage, envisage, which is to picture something

in your mind about how something will be or how someone will look.

Then we had the adjective liberal, liberal, which is to be open to new

ideas and willing to accept others opinions and suggestions, even

when they're different to yours.

Then we had the phrasal verb bandy around, which is to talk casually about

something without thinking about it first.

Risky.

Then we had the adverb insanely, insanely, which is to the extreme

degree, unreasonably and extremely.

So, let's now do this for pronunciation.

Please, repeat after me.

Conservatory.

Conservatory.

Envisage.

Envisage.

Liberal.

Liberal.

Bandy around.

Bandy around.

Insanely.

Insanely.

Very good.

Okay, let's now test your memory.

If I am trying to picture in my mind what my new home is going to be like,

because I'm about to move house, and I'm trying to picture in my mind what

it's going to be like to live in this new home, and what the neighbours

will be like, what verb could I use to describe this form of picturing?

Envisage, envisage.

And I have this vision in my mind of moving into this new

house and then extending it.

There's a beautiful garden, but not much light in the house.

So, I'm thinking of building a glass room on the back.

What's the name of this glass room that I would attach to my house?

A conservatory, a conservatory.

Now, I'm going to go and talk to the neighbours and I do have to be careful.

Because if I just casually start talking about building projects and what I might

do to my house and I don't really think about their point of view, but I'm just

opening my mouth and all these words are coming out about building and excavating

and noisy equipment and builders.

They might start to be upset about what's coming, the disruption

that it's going to cause for them.

What am I doing?

What phrasal verb would I use to describe talking casually without thinking?

Bandy around.

I'm bandying ideas around.

And then if I decided to do a huge extension, this extension

is the most extreme extension that I could possibly build.

I am going to use what adverb to describe how large this extension is going to be?

An insanely large extension, but hopefully, regardless of the disruption

that I cause to my neighbours, hopefully, they will be open to the new ideas that

I'm bringing and willing to accept that this extension actually is going to be

a benefit, even if they don't agree with it necessarily, because this extension

is going to house a little art club, which will be good for the community.

So, how am I going to describe them if they are open and willing to

accept my suggestions and my opinions?

They are...

liberal.

They're quite liberal, aren't they?

Fantastic.

Right, let's bring them all together in a little story.

With spring approaching, I'm hoping the weather will start

getting a little better.

We've had an awful winter, with fences being blown down, insanely cold school

runs, black ice on the roads, coughs, colds, and everything in between.

Not to mention squirrels chewing through my internet cables, fish being swooped

out of my pond and eaten by birds, and a little fox visiting me every day

looking for food as he couldn't find his own with all the rain soaked fields!

Now, I've been quite a liberal person when it comes to making plans

and improving life for our family.

So the other night, we were all sat at dinner talking about

what the future holds for us.

Should we move to be closer to family in the UK?

Should we emigrate and go in search of warmer climes?

Should we renovate where we are to suit our growing needs

and the boys getting older?

We bandied around some ideas and have decided to build a

conservatory in the garden.

I can envisage it now, closing the office door at the end of a long and productive

day, sitting in my new sun-warmed room, looking out into the garden and

enjoying the blossoming flowers, sipping a nice cuppa, or a cheeky glass of

wine if I feel like treating myself!

And relaxing with my boys...

what a dream!

Wake me up when it becomes a reality!

And that brings us to the end of today's episode.

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Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.